Side-by -side: A Photographic History of American Women In War, by Vickie Lewis (oversize HC, 1999, $2.50)
This book "highlights the strength and courage of women in military service through poignant photographs and personal narratives, offering a new perspective of American history. In addition to other public and private collections, author Vickie Lewis has been given unprecedented access to the archive of the Women In Military Service For America Memorial Foundation. She draws on hundreds of personal interviews and historical journal entries for her text, allowing many women's stories to be told in their own words. In more than 150 images we see a story of women unfold like never before."
I knew about Harriet Tubman and Clara Barton. I vaguely remember Molly Pitcher and the Battle of Monmouth, NJ. (I grew up in NJ, and she was a local hero.) I did NOT know about Sarah Emma Edmonds who enlisted in the Union Army as "Franklin Thompson". She started out as a male nurse, then offered to become a spy when one was needed. She ran spy missions while disguised. The army never knew she was a woman until 20 years later when she petitioned the government for a military pension. During her two years as a spy "she fooled others into believing she was a black man, an Irish peddler woman, a black laundress, and a young man from the South." In 1863 she returned to army nursing, where she contracted malaria. Oops, she couldn't have any doctor check her out! She had to vanish for a period, then returned as a civilian nurse.
What women, what human beings, what soldiers these women all were!
Look for this book on the new non-fiction table. (Later: military history)
